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was wondering if anyone else had heard that the mobs punishment for homosexual behavior was actually even more humiliating than what they did to him.. it was my understanding that the members.. uhhh member, would be 'bobbit-ed' and inserted into his mouth... perhaps that is actually the case, but philly's boys didnt want to leave such a recognizable... calling card... any thoughts?

I actually predicted that that's what was alluded to in last week's preview when Tony was trying to enter the Bing and Sil met him at the door. Chris flat out threatened to cut his thing off and "feed it to him". So I thought that the NY captain's death was actually going to be Vito's death and torture at the hands of Tony's guys.

I guess "taking it up the ass" was an even worse offense to the NY guys.

in the early 90's in north jersey a mob boss was killed for being gay....i forget his name and all that right now, but the guy who did it allocuted (speling) and said they were going out to dinner or something to that extent and ala the clemenza godfather car whakcing scene the hitman turned around and shot him in the car ( instead of it being parked to piss)....

i have never read anything about this instance involving the bobbit...i have heard about the bobbit, but never read anything to substantiate it.....but like all things just cause i don't know about it, doesn't mean it didn't happen

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>in the early 90's in north jersey a mob boss was killed for being gay....i forget his name and all that right now, but the guy who did it allocuted (speling) and said they were going out to dinner or something to that extent and ala the clemenza godfather car whakcing scene the hitman turned around and shot him in the car ( instead of it being parked to piss)....<hr></blockquote>

It most definitely WAS a boss, albeit an "acting boss" (like Phil). His name was John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato, and he was acting boss of the De Cavalcante family in North Jersey, the family on which at least part of The Sopranos is based. D'Amato's girlfriend told a couple of his men that they went to gay clubs, where they would switch partners for the night. When word spread, the news was not received with, shall we say, tolerance. Here's a link to Jerry Capeci's account in Gangland News.www.ganglandnews.com/column232.htm

Yeah, you're definitely on target Mr. Taste. The folklore is that the mob (at least the old school members) mete out their punishment symbolically....like the fictional Moe Green hit...eyes too big for his stomach, pop.

As read in the general thread, Vito’s death surprisingly seems to have touched viewers, even those who didn’t like the character and/or the storyline.
I think it’s because the reasons of this death are unfair, just like Adrianna’s murder. It was unpleasant because she was innocent.
Here it’s almost the same; he’s beaten to death just for being gay. The whacks are more or less acceptable to us when we feel they’re deserved. Vito could have been murder for Jackie Jr‘s death, for the murder he committed the previous week, for all his crimes, but no, it’s was because of his love towards men.
What we saw in the motel room wasn’t a whack ; it wasn’t a hit ; it’s was a deadly gay bashing.

That’s what made us all uncomfortable and touched.
____________

Another point about Vito’s end of storyline regarding the musical choices made for the end credits.
The last shot of the episode is the picture of Vito for the ‘Thin Club’. It’s to make us think of him throughout the end credits, not the Paris trip.

First we have a chorus of the song ‘Home’ by Persephone’s Bees.
This chorus is violent with heavy drums: it’s a reminder of Vito’s violent beating.
Then we have ‘As time goes by’ by Dooley Wilson from Casablanca.
The portion of the song chosen makes us think how unfair the reason of this deadly beating was : being gay shouldn’t be a punishable crime. The lyrics, as previously given by Monadax, go like this :

“You must remember this,
A kiss is just a kiss,
A sigh is just a sigh,
The fundamental things apply, (even between 2 men)As time goes by,
And when two lovers woo,
They still say "I love you", (“I love you Johnny Cakes”…)(…)
Woman needs man,
And man must have his mate, (how conveniently ambivalent is that sentence!, the mate could be a man…)That no one can deny, (no one should deny it, even mobster rules)It's still the same old story,
A fight for love and glory,
A case of ‘do’ or ‘die’,
As time goes by.

The usual quote would have been : A case of ‘Do’ or ‘Don’t’
The ‘Do’ = living an openly gay life with Jim in New Hampshire.
The ‘Don’t’ = denying his homosexuality and resuming a mobster life in New Jersey.
It’s perfectly accurate to make “Die” a synonym of “Don’t” in the lyrics, as for Vito the “Don’t” choice would clearly lead to his death. And it had.